Forces of Nature - (2010)

See also The Creator of all

Home  -  More recent news on this topic


October 2011

Dust storm magnitude startles even long-time residents: "Lubbock has seen its share of dust storms over the years, but the gusty wall of dirt that blew into the city about 5:30 p.m. Monday was apparently beyond anything that had been seen here for decades.... The cold front following the dust storm dropped temperatures from almost 90 degrees at the airport into the lower 60s..." See The Creator of all

Hairy, crazy ants invade from Texas to Mississippi: "It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes.... And they're on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they've invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas.....They overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment..." See Matthew 24:7

September 2011

Fukushima Desolation Worst Since Nagasaki: "Takako Harada, 80, returned to an evacuated area of Iitate village to retrieve her car. Beside her house is an empty cattle pen, the 100 cows slaughtered on government order after radiation from the March 11 atomic disaster saturated the area, forcing 160,000 people to move away and leaving some places uninhabitable for two decades or more. 'Older folks want to return, but the young worry about radiation,' said Harada, whose family ran the farm for 40 years. 'I want to farm, but will we be able to sell anything?'... Fukushima’s $3.2 billion-a-year farm industry is being devastated and tourists that hiked the prefecture’s mountains and surfed off its beaches have all but vanished."

August 2011

More cracks found in Washington Monument after quake: "The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials reopened one day after the East Coast's rare 5.8 temblor, but the Washington Monument will remain closed indefinitely.... It is the world's tallest obelisk....a U.S. Park Police helicopter crew spotted a crack 4 feet long and up to an inch wide in one of the stones near the top of the structure." More about obelisks

Heat Scorches Parched Texas... 35 Straight Days Above 100: "There's no relief in sight for Texans suffering through the worst one-year drought here in at least a century, as deaths mount, crops wilt and drinking-water supplies evaporate in record heat....Combined with a longstanding drought, the unrelenting heat is zapping moisture from the ground and creating desert-like conditions.... The Salvation Army, among other groups, is setting up cooling stations for people without air conditioning....In Austin, water lines and mains are cracking as the parched earth contracts." May our Lord bring relief to His people!

July 2011

The nine billion-dollar weather disasters of 2011 (so far): "It's been an unprecedented year for weather disasters in the United States, with the dangerous portion of hurricane season still to come. We've already seen nine billion-dollar weather disasters so far in 2011. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) June disaster report estimates that, through May, 2011 is the costliest year since they began tracking billion-dollar disasters in 1980."

Amazing pictures: Volcano erupts in Chile: "The eruption of the Puyehue volcano in the Andes mountains of southern Chile [last month] provided some spectacular images of the force of nature. Ash covers the landscape and thousands of people were evacuated from the surrounding rural communities."

Missouri Flood Carves 'Badlands' Landscape: "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced open a levee near Bird's Point in southeastern Missouri....The resulting flood displaced acres of earth, leaving behind gullies and rills that resemble small versions of desert areas out west.... If local floods can carve small steep-walled valleys and leave behind miniature plateaus, then massive continent-wide floods might be expected to carve similar structures on a much larger scale.... Just as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens did before this, ongoing geological and meteorological events continue to point to an earth that was catastrophically shaped by a global flood." See The Creator of all

June 2011

Minot residents evacuate as historic rise in Souris River approaches: "What I see right now is probably the most devastating in terms of the number of people directly impacted and what it will do to damage homes as water begins to overtop the levees and fill in behind,' said Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk, North Dakota National Guard."

Power should be restored by Thursday night: "...two days after a violent wave of storms that spawned at least two tornadoes and packed 80 mph winds at one point left about 440,000 customers without electricity throughout the Chicago area."

Many in S. Ariz. fire zone blame border crossers: "The two largest wildfires burning in Southern Arizona originated in rugged, mountainous corridors frequently used by cross-border people and drug smugglers. And the U.S. Forest Service has determined that both fires were human-caused."

Volcano billows giant plume for 2nd day in Chile: "A volcano in the Caulle Cordon of southern Chile erupted for a second day Sunday, shooting out pumice stones and pluming a cloud of ash six miles (10 kilometers) high."

May 2011

Mo. officials say tornado killed at least 89: "A massive tornado that tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri killed at least 89 people... ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like soda cans and leaving a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood."

$300million a DAY: Cost of Mississippi floods revealed as 15 miles of river is closed to shipping: "Rising water has already caused millions of dollars worth of damage, inundating 3 million acres of farmland in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and waters are continuing to rise in Louisiana after water was released onto flood plains to spare large cities including New Orleans. ...60 per cent of grain exports leave the country via the Mississippi."

April 201: historic U.S. extremes in rains, floods, tornadoes, and fires: "April was a month of historic climate extremes across much of the United States, including: record breaking precipitation that resulted in historic flooding; recurrent violent weather systems that broke records for tornado and severe weather outbreaks; and wildfire activity that scorched more than twice the area of any April this century."

Record floods on Mississippi mplain; 3rd EF-5 tornado verified: "Red River Landing [Remember the old song about "the Red River valley"]  is the site of the Old River Control Structure, the Army Corps' massive engineering structure that keeps the Mississippi River from carving a new path to the Gulf of Mexico.... Its failure would be a serious blow to the U.S. economy, and the great Mississippi flood of 2011 will give the Old River Control Structure its most severe test ever. Also of concern is the forecast for the Mississippi to crest at 19.5 feet in New Orleans on May 24....that is not much breathing room." See Isaiah 43:2-3, 5

Army Corps blows up levee to help fight unprecedented Mississippi River flood: "As the levee disintegrated, a massive cascade of muddy brown water from the Father of Waters gushed into the crevasse, thundering with the flow of eight Niagara Falls. The waters quickly spread out over 133,000 acres of rich farmland, rushing southwards along the 35-mile long Birds Point-New Madrid Spillway. The levee that was destroyed...was designed to be destroyed in the event of a record flood."

All Eyes on the Mississippi River: "The Mississippi River continues to rise, so much so that its tributaries are starting to flow backwards. ...the worst is still yet to come.....'Right now the Mississippi river is in the process of going through what we call an epic flood, meaning it's more than historic, it's more than a 100 year flood, it's more like a 500 year flood.' ...The river is more than two feet past flood stage; it rose two feet in the 24 hours following the storms. It's expected to crest at 45 feet around May 10th.... Tunica's nine casinos will shut down indefinitely, displacing about 10,000 workers and costing millions in lost dollars."

April 2011

The Japanese Economy Is In Much Bigger Trouble Than Most People Think: "...the Japanese economy is in much bigger trouble than most people think. ...how does a nation that is already drowning in debt replace dozens of cities and towns that are suddenly gone? The truth is that thousands of square miles have been more completely destroyed than if they had been bombed by a foreign military force. The loss of homes, cars, businesses and personal wealth is almost unimaginable. ...seawater off the coast of Japan near the Fukushima facility was recently found to contain 7.5 million times the legal limit of radioactive iodine." Let us continue to pray!

Video:  Libya's Great Man-made River - The 8th Wonder of the World? Tapping an underground water source that apparently flows under the sands from southern Sahara to the shores of the Mediterranean. Will it turn Libya's deserts into agricultural gardens?

March 2010

Deadly earthquake in the border area of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos: "So far the official earthquake toll (Myanmar/Burma state-run media) still stands at 74 with 111 people injured.... On Sunday 27/03, unofficial reports are mentioning already more than 150 dead." This article gives insights into Burma (now Myanmar): "In joy or pain, our course is onward still"

Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami

Japan's apocalypse now: More pictures.

A Major Earthquake in North America Imminent? "JIM BERKLAND, GEOLOGIST: '...we are having on the 19th of this month not only the full moon, but within an hour the closest approach of the moon to the earth until the year 2016. The next day is the equinoctial tides. So you're bringing together three of the maximum tide raising forces. We know about the ocean tides. But there is also an Earth tide. And there is a tide in the ground water. All of these help to release sudden, built up strain, and cause earthquakes."

The flood came and swept them all away!  May this video -- like the very real disaster in Japan -- remind us of our own puny power compared to the mighty omnipotent power of our God! And may it prompt us to turn to Him and seek His will and strength in the midst of today's spreading corruption! See God's Warnings for our Times

U.S. Military Personnel Play Key Role in Response to Japan Crisis. "...more than 17,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are helping Japan deal with the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster. Among the tasks carried out Operation Tomodachi (“Friend”) are search and rescue, the movement of relief supplies and people... delivery of large quantities of foods and water, and massive cleanup operations."

Japan earthquake: disaster by numbers: "2,414 – Number of people confirmed dead. 10,000 – Likely final death toll figure is set to reach beyond that mark. 15,000 - Number of people unaccounted for. 50 – Number of Britons missing, presumed dead. 550,000 – Evacuated from their homes since the quake struck on Friday." Please pray with us that God will use faithful Christians in Japan to spread His peace, love, hope and eternal life to the suffering people.

Japan reactor fire releases radiation: "Although the number-four reactor was shut for maintenance when the quake and tsunami struck last Friday, 'spent nuclear fuel in the reactor heated up, creating hydrogen and triggered a hydrogen explosion'....'There is very little food and convenience stores nearby are all closed..." Let's all pray that God will comfort and meet the needs of these cold, hungry and frightened people.

Japan nuclear plant rocked by another explosion: "A hydrogen explosion Tuesday morning [Japan time]  destroyed the outer building of a quake-damaged Unit 2 nuclear reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant....

     "About 2,000 bodies were discovered Monday at two sites.... Whole coastal villages were wiped from the map, and a full assessment of the extent of deaths and damage was expected to take weeks. Meanwhile, hardship and privation in the quake zone grew, with tens of thousands of people spending a fourth night in chilly shelters."

Japan tsunami: Lessons for us: "The quake...measured between 8.9 to 9.1 on the Richter scale, which was the largest one to hit Japan and within the boundaries of North American and Pacific tectonic plates in the last 1,200 years." See videos below:

    Death Toll Could Top 10,000

    Extraordinary new footage from Japan

    Ground video of massive tsunami in Japan

Earthquake Hazard Maps Show How U.S. Shakes With Quakes: "Earthquakes remain a serious threat in 46 of the United States. For some areas such as western Oregon and Washington, the new maps contain higher estimates for how hard the ground will shake compared to earlier versions of the maps released in 1996 and 2002."

Has The Tsunami In Japan Destroyed The Japanese Economy? "'There is no way to assess even the direct damage to Japan's economy or to the global economy. This is a sad day for Japan, and economic aftershocks could affect the whole world's economy .' ...The national debt of Japan is now well over 200% of GDP and there seems to be no doubt that they will need to borrow massive amounts of money to deal with the aftermath of this crisis."

We thank God for protecting our missionary friends in Sendai. Please pray with us that God will use them and other Christians to bring His peace, love, hope and eternal life to countless people facing pain, loss and hopelessness in the midst of the current crisis.

January 2010

World Record Hailstone Weighed In Vivian: "...a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota....The damage is proof that it wasn't a typical South Dakota thunderstorm. Holes were punched through the top of buildings....massive hailstones pummeled the ground. Tuesday, the dents in the ground are still visible, some as large and deep as coffee cans. But when the hail stopped, a certain stone grabbed his attention...."  

      “Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble...?" Job 38:22-23

[Australia] Grave fears for dozens missing in deadly floods: "Eight people are dead and grave fears are held for more than 70 people still missing after yesterday's unprecedented flash flooding in southern Queensland." His strength in my weakness


December 2010

Australia Floods Show No Signs of Retreating: "Rising waters have knocked out roads and several highways in northeastern Australia, trapping motorists, marooning entire towns and driving thousands from their homes.... More than 200,000 people have been affected so far by the floods....The dangerous floodwaters that have spread across roughly half the state of Queensland, on the continent’s northeastern coast, showed no sign of retreating on Saturday....

     "Mayor Brad Carter urged people to evacuate, and news reports said hundreds already had.... About 300,000 square miles have been affected by the flooding.... High waters cut road and rail links and forced the mining giant Rio Tinto to declare emergency exemptions from some sales contracts."

     Here is an article we wrote after visiting Queensland back in 1997: WORLD HERITAGE "PROTECTION": UNESCO's War Against National Sovereignty

September 2010

 Australia faces worst plague of locusts in 75 years: "The warm, wet weather that prevailed last summer meant that three generations of locusts were born, each one up to 150 times larger than the previous generation. After over-wintering beneath the ground, the first generation of 2010 is already hatching....The juveniles will spend 20 to 25 days eating and growing, shedding their exoskeletons five times before emerging as adults, when population pressure will force them to swarm.... A one-kilometre wide swarm of locusts can chomp through 10 tons of crops – a third of their combined body weight – in a day....

     "All locusts are grasshoppers, but not all grasshoppers are locusts. The difference is a suite of genetic changes that kick in when population densities cross a critical threshold.... Locusts are highly cannibalistic...and any that stay still too long are likely to get nibbled. 'Swarms are like lifeboats,' he says, forging a gruesome metaphor. 'If you're the only one in the boat, you could easily starve. But if you've got lots of company, you could be the last to survive. We call it travelling with your lunch.'...

     "...spraying itself comes at a cost. ...bees are in danger from pesticides and ecologists fear for the many animals that treat the locusts as a moving smorgasbord." See Signs of the times

Russia teams up with U.S.: "The Pakistan floods are bringing the United States and Russia together to contain the increasing threat from the Taliban as the refugees who are fleeing the flood's ravages are being welcomed by the renegades in Afghanistan." See Deceptive alliances

August 2010

Pakistan: Helping Flood Victims: "Pakistan has been pummeled by its worst monsoon floods in 102 years.... Tens of thousands of villages are under water, roads and bridges have been washed away and diseases are spreading throughout the flood area. According to news reports, many of the flood victims have not yet received any sort of relief....  The VOM [Voice of the Martyr] team traveled to the region and passed out Action Packs and Bibles to affected believers....One man told the team he was thankful to God, because even though his family lost everything, the Lord saved their lives." See Following Jesus and sharing His suffering

Wildfires in Russia, Canada create poisonous ring around planet: "Raging forest fires in central Russia, Siberia and western Canada have created an enormous cloud of pollutants covering the northern hemisphere....

     "Thousands of emergency workers and military personnel have been working round the clock for almost three weeks to fight the fires in 22 regions, which have so far killed more than 50 people and left over 3,500 homeless. The immediate economic cost of the fires has been estimated at $15 billion."

Landslides complicate Pakistan flood relief efforts: "Landslides triggered by the worst floods in Pakistan in 80 years are hampering already troubled relief efforts, with aid workers using donkeys or travelling on foot to reach millions in desperate need of help. Poor weather has made it difficult for helicopters to deliver food.... The catastrophe....has killed more than 1,600 people and left two million homeless." God's light in the darkness

June 2010

Video. Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time!

May 2010

Gulf Oil Is in the [Gulf Stream] Loop Current: "'What the satellite pictures definitely reveal, he said, is that the time for modeling whether oil might get into the Loop Current is over. 'It's not a matter of predicting if it's going to be there or not,' Roffer said. 'It's there.'" See Map of Ocean Currents and Biblical reference to ocean Cc

BP's oil spill is an ecological disaster: "A vast amount of oil one mile beneath the surface has bled since April 20 into the Gulf of Mexico. According to BP, it's about 200,000 gallons a day... more recently engineers from Purdue University predicted it's probably closer to 2.5 million gallons a day. The ominous plumes of oil venting from this pipe at the equivalent of 152 atmospheric pressures — one mile beneath the surface — are behaving unlike any other oil spill ever observed before....

     "Florida is the only state in continental United States to have extensive (about 6,000) shallow coral reefs near its coasts.... Between the reefs and the sea grasses are more than 500 species of fish, spiny lobsters, snow crabs, Caribbean manatees, American crocodiles, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley and green sea turtles....

     "Some of the dispersants and oil have entered the Loop Current — a powerful conveyor belt that carries the warm Gulf water through the Straits of Florida. It contains 80 times the volume of water of all rivers combined on Earth. It then joins the Gulf Stream Current, which barrels past Miami carrying one billion cubic feet of water every second. As it passes Georgia and then South Carolina it triples its volume, and ... heads out into the Atlantic toward the only open sea... Eventually, the Gulf Stream becomes the North Atlantic Current, destined for Western Europe where its fan-like tendrils become the Norwegian Current." [It warms Norway -- even beyond the arctic circle].

racking the Oil Spill: "About the Oil Slick Areas Shown on the Map: The 'probable extent' of the oil slick is an estimate by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of where oil is mostly likely to go based on wind and ocean current forecasts, as well as analysis of aerial photography and satellite imagery."

5 Dead, Dozens Injured as Tornadoes Hit Plains: "Several tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma and Kansas on Monday as the storms moved through the area, dumping hail as big as baseballs and leaving tens of thousands of people without power." See Suffering

April 2010

Stunning photos of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano and its threats to life: Take a look at these unforgettable pictures! See Seeing God through the darkness

One million homeless after India tornado: "A giant tornado that ravaged hundreds of thousands of homes and killed 137 people has left one million people in eastern India without a roof over their heads."

Research Gap Left Airlines Exposed to Volcano’s Blast: "A shutdown of European airspace that cost carriers $1.7 billion following a volcanic eruption in Iceland was exacerbated by a lack of research into the effects of ash on jet engines and over-reliance on computer modeling....

      “'Events in the Philippines and Indonesia are big ash- producing eruptions and are tens and hundreds of times bigger than the Iceland episode.... So it’s not really the ash that’s the issue.” See The Creator of all

Tornadoes killed 10 people in Mississippi: "Tornadoes ripped through the Southeast on Saturday, killing 10 people in Mississippi and injuring more than a dozen others. Roofs were torn off businesses, homes were splintered, vehicles were overturned and roads were blocked by toppled trees.... Malcolm Gordon, 63, stood with members of his family peering through a broken window. Above them, the roof was gone, a tree lay across part of the house and power lines stretched across the yard.... Gordon looked around at the devastation. 'It sounded like a train coming down that road,' he said." See Suffering

Iceland's farmers try to save herds from toxic ash: "Farmers across the region where the volcano erupted this week under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier have been scrambling to protect their herds from inhaling or ingesting the ash, which can cause internal bleeding, long-term bone damage and teeth loss. Near Skogar, south of the volcano, the ash blew down from the mountain, blotting out the sunlight and covering everything—pastures, animals and humans—in a thick, gray paste.... 'The risk is of fluoride poisoning if they breathe or eat too much,' Hilmarsdottir said through a white protective mask.

     "...near the volcano, the amount of ash is becoming overwhelming. The vast majority of the country's farming activity is based on herding cattle, horses and sheep, so the stakes are high for the farmers. On the north side of the volcano... 33-year-old sheep farmer Anna Runolfsdottir was preparing for the worst—that the wind direction could change and spread the ash over more land, including hers.... It's lambing season, and she expects between 60 and 100 newborns this spring."

Volcano chaos could continue for months: "More countries were forced to close their air space yesterday as the ash cloud continued to expand across the continent. More than 17,000 flights to and from European airspace were cancelled.... The Met office reported that volcanic ash had begun to fall across Britain, coating surfaces with a fine layer of dust and raising fears for people with breathing difficulties. Meanwhile experts warned of shortages of some foods with produce destined for British shops rotting in airport warehouses in other parts of the world. Geologists reported that activity at the volcano increased yesterday, spewing a plume of ash 5.3 miles high into the atmosphere." See  next link:

A volcano erupts and our Irish Famine past reappears: "Ireland is as cut off from America right now as if air travel never existed. Now the only way here is via boat thanks to the Icelandic volcano and our entire sense of what time represents has to change. Suddenly we are catapulted back to an era where planes no longer whisk us from one continent to another in under six hours....

     "The broad Atlantic back then was known as the 'bowl of tears' and we can for a brief few days imagine the sense of isolation and loss that the millions faced as they fled the Emerald Isle....In Famine times the poor, the hungry, the oppressed piled on board for the voyage from hell. The only consolation was that what they left behind was even worse." See The Creator of all

Ash may hover for days over uncertain Europe: "The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound is far from finished spitting out its grit.... Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption. Air space across a swath from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way until Sunday or Monday in some countries, affecting airports from New Zealand to San Francisco. Millions of passengers have had plans foiled or delayed.

     "Activity in the volcano at the heart of this increased early Saturday, and showed no sign of abating.... Scientists say that because the volcano is situated below a glacial ice cap, the magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes of grit that can be catastrophic to plane engines, depending on prevailing winds."

‘Terrible earthquake’ kills hundreds in China: "A series of strong earthquakes struck a far western Tibetan area of China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring thousands as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, trapping many more. ...a lack of excavation equipment, downed phone lies, damage to roads, strong winds and aftershocks were all hindering the rescue operation. There was also concern for those without shelter as night-time temperatures plunge below freezing in the area most affected by the quake... which lies at more than 13,000 feet."

March 2010

 Iceland's eruptions could have global consequences: "Blasts of lava and ash shot out of a volcano in southern Iceland on Monday and small tremors rocked the ground, a surge in activity that raised fears of a larger explosion at the nearby Katla volcano. Scientists say history has proven that when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts, Katla follows."

February 2010

Storm could be the biggest for the nation's capital in modern history: "'Snowmageddon,' President Barack Obama called it. And even the president's motorcade — which featured SUVs instead of limousines — fell victim as a tree limb snapped and crashed onto a motorcade vehicle carrying press. No one was injured. From Pennsylvania to New Jersey, south to Virginia, the region was under at least 2 feet of snow. Parts of northern Maryland had 3 feet."


December 2009

This was not simply a "force of nature," but the physical laws within God's creation were clearly part of this display: Mystery solved? Norway's spiral light display 'was down to a failed Russian Bulava missile test': "The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely."

October 2009

South Pacific tsunami kills nearly 100 people: "A powerful earthquake [magnitude 8.0 and 8.3]... hurled a massive tsunami at the shores of Samoa and American Samoa, flattening villages and sweeping cars and people out to sea.... Signs of devastation were everywhere, with a giant boat washed ashore lying on the edge of a highway and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes."

August 2009

Will Krakatoa rock the world again? "Last time, [this volcano] killed thousands and changed the weather for five years.... Bright orange lava spews up into the air, dark smoke mingles with the clouds and the gloomy night takes on an ominous red glow. Towering 1,200ft above the tropical stillness of the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, one of the most terrifying volcanoes the world has ever known has begun to stir once more. Almost 126 years to the day since Krakatoa first showed signs of an imminent eruption, stunning pictures released this week prove that the remnant of this once-enormous volcano is bubbling, boiling and brimming over. With an explosive force 13,000 times the power of the atomic bomb that annihilated Hiroshima, the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa killed more than 36,000 people and radically altered global weather and temperatures for years afterwards. Major volcanic eruptions cause cooling, not warming. Spewing ash and gasses into the stratosphere, they block the sun's rays. Since the earth is already cooling, Al Gore might be pleased to have a new explanation for his false predictions.

April 2009

Red River flooding: "Volunteers and national guardsmen are out in force, building levees, rescuing and evacuating those that need to get to higher ground." [See pictures of love in action]

November 2008

Fires ravage Southern California: "Chaotic, gusting winds fanned wildfires all over Southern California on Saturday, reducing 500 mobile homes to cinders and forcing thousands of homeowners and even firefighters to flee as flames as high as 50 feet licked at their heels. ...

     "The Sayre Fire, the worst of the blazes, raced through Sylmar...in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, forcing the evacuation of 10,000 people and shutting down major freeways....

     "[The Montecito] fire, which erupted Thursday night amid superheated winds - known locally as 'sundowner' winds because they blow down from the mountains at sundown - destroyed 210 homes and forced the evacuation of 5,400 people....  'The flames just burst open, and the hillside looked like a volcano had just erupted... It looked like a river of fire.'" See Suffering and Seeing God through the darkness

Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard: "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has spent the past week and half fighting to get working barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. By Thursday morning, against the governor's wishes, those barges still were sitting idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore....

     '"The Coast Guard came and shut them down,' Jindal said. 'You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, 'Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.'... The governor said he didn't have the authority to overrule the Coast Guard's decision..."

 

Some are asking this question: Obama admin is blocking Gulf clean-up: "Is the Obama administration intentionally scaling back clean-up efforts....'The BP oil disaster was custom-made.... The effective oil-skimmer systems utilized by the Saudis and others would work to greatly minimize the damage being caused to the US Gulf Coast. But, The Obama continues to drag his heels as States and lives are destroyed."

 

Overlooked Danger in Gulf Oil Spill: Methane: "The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer.... That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating 'dead zones' where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives."

I don't know if this information is reliable: Nuke Only Option, Gulf 40% Covered By Underwater Oil Lakes: "Matthew Simmons, founder of the Ocean Energy Institute, talks with Bloomberg's Lori Rothman about BP Plc's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and his views that the Military should takeover capping efforts and that the use of a "small-bore nuclear device" is now the "only option" to stop the flow of oil. He states the flow of oil is 120,000 barrels a day and also describes an underwater lake of oil 1100 meters below the surface, covering 40% of the Gulf of Mexico. Relief wells are useless he says, and will only triple the flow of oil and gas, and ultimately fail."

Fact-checking Obama's Gulf Spill Address: "He claimed that Americans 'consume more than 20% of the world's oil, but have less than 2% of the world's oil reserves....As is so often the case, they are relying on the public's ignorance. Most people don't realize that in the U.S., oil isn't counted as part of our 'reserves' unless it is legally available for drilling.... The U.S. government could cause our reserves to skyrocket overnight by opening new areas, on land and in shallow water, to drilling. But the U.S. is the only country in the world that has deliberately chosen not to develop its own energy resources."

Video: OIL SPILL - BULG on ocean floor, methane gas buildup  (Is it reliable?)

Obama's Political Oil Fund: "The idea is for BP to turn its assets over to a fund administered by an 'independent' trustee who would decide what are legitimate damage claims.... The White House knows it has no legal authority to demand such a corporate ATM card....

     "BP has more than 600 claims personnel working to pay fishermen and others that have suffered economic damage. It has vowed to pay all 'legitimate' claims and has worked through 20,000 of 42,000 submitted so far, at a cost of $53 million....

     "By contrast, a government-administered fund more or less guarantees a more politicized payment process. The escrow administrator will be chosen by the White House, and as such would be influenced by the Administration's political goals. Those goals would include payments to those harmed by the Administration's own six-month deep water drilling ban. That reckless policy will soon put thousands of Gulf Coast residents out of work....

     "The history of such government funds is that they are always raided for politically favored purposes...

     "Offshore drilling, even in shallow water, is coming to a stop as the entire industry considers the additional political risks of operating amid a political panic in which even the President of United States seems oblivious to the rule of law."

Video with important background information: The BP Oil Spill May Be Bad, But This Cover Up is Far More Deadly

CEO sold BP shares weeks before spill: "Tony Hayward [chief executive of BP] cashed in about a third of his holding in [BP] one month before a well on the Deepwater Horizon rig burst.... Mr Hayward, whose pay package is £4 million a year, then paid off the mortgage on his family’s mansion in Kent, which is estimated to be valued at more than £1.2 million....Since he disposed of 223,288 shares on March 17, the company’s share price has fallen by 30 per cent. About £40 billion has been wiped off its total value. The fall has caused pain not just for BP shareholders, but also for millions of company pension funds and small investors."

       "There's plenty of blame to go around... BP's cutting corners but also the environmentalists, who pushed through legislation to force oil companies away from shallow shore lines and into deep waters. ...president Obama was offered much-needed assistance in containing the oil spell from European countries and he arrogantly turned them down. Big mistake." (Mark Skousen's "Forecasts & Strategies", June 14)

Senator confirms reports that wellbore is pierced; oil seeping from seabed in multiple places: "...we’re looking into something new right now, that there’s reports of oil that’s seeping up from the seabed… which would indicate, if that’s true, that the well casing itself is actually pierced… underneath the seabed....

      "The ultimate worst-case scenario is that the well is never successfully plugged, said Fred Aminzadeh, a research professor at the University of Southern California’s Center for Integrated Smart Oil Fields.... That would leave the well to flow for probably more than a decade..."

Gulf oil spill "may top 100,000 barrels a day": "BP’s oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico may be up to four times the scale estimated by a government scientific panel, pumping out 100,000 barrels a day in what equates to the company’s 'worst case scenario' and prompting new accusations that executives are stonewalling the truth. The news — revealed by one of the members of President Obama’s Flow Rate Technical Group, a panel that previously estimated that the flow was in the region of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day — counter to BP’s claims that it is now capturing 'the majority' of the oil and channeling it into a tanker."

Video: Gulf Oil Doomsday: Notice that workers are not allowed to talk with reporters.

Obama faces first backlash in the US over his continued attacks on BP: "One of his most sweeping demands of BP - that the company be made to foot the bill for a drilling moratorium imposed by his administration - has been undermined after it emerged that his own officials modified expert advice....

     "Most damaging is the revelation that the administration modified a report by a panel of experts advising Mr Obama. Two paragraphs were added calling for the moratorium, which was not part of the team's conclusions. [That sounds like the UN manipulation of scientific data!] More than half of the experts, who were recommended for their know-how by the National Academy of Engineering, have since revealed that they actually opposed a halt to drilling."

Video: Obama Sending SWAT Teams To Inspect Oil Rigs: "OBAMA: I do want to speak briefly to the American people about the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier today DHS Secretary Napolitano announced that this incident is of national significance and the Department of Interior has announced that they will be sending SWAT teams to the Gulf to inspect all platforms and rigs and I have ordered the secretaries of interior and Homeland Security as well as administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency to visit the site on Friday to ensure that BP and the entire US government is doing everything possible not just to respond to this incident but also to determine its cause."

Meanwhile, instead of saving money for the Gulf and its hurting people, Obama Pledges New Aid for Palestinians: "President Obama promised a $400 million aid package for the West Bank and Gaza on Wednesday." Gaza and the Hamas actually have plenty of supplies. See Signs of the Times.

Video: CBS Threatened With Arrest For Filming The Oil Spill: "Journalist threatened with arrest. Emerging reports are raising the question of just how much of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill journalists are able to document. When CBS tried to film a beach with heavy oil on the shore in South Pass, Louisiana, a boat of BP contractors, and two Coast Guard officers, told them to turn around, or be arrested.

    "'This is BP's rules, it's not ours,' someone aboard the boat said.....As the Coast Guard is a branch of the Armed Forces, it brings into question how closely the government and BP are working together to keep details of the disaster in the dark."

Gulf oil spill figures may be double earlier estimates: "Government scientists say as many as 40000 barrels of oil per day have been gushing into the gulf. BP has said the blown-out well will not be plugged before August." 

Drilling Bits of Fiction: "The Obama Administration is under political pressure to reverse its ill-considered deep water drilling moratorium, and the latest blowback comes from seven angry experts from the National Academy of Engineering who say their views were distorted to justify the ban." See Ban Truth - Reap Tyranny

Did Emanuel's link to oil company compromise efforts to regulate it? "White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel... lived rent-free in Washington, D.C., for years, thanks in part to a friend under contract with oil giant BP. Emanuel lived for five years rent-free in an apartment owned by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and her husband, Stanley Greenberg, whose consulting firm was a prime architect in BP's efforts to recast itself as a 'green' corporation and recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars awarded through a committee chaired by Emanuel."

Remember Rahm Emanuel's warning : "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. 'This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."

Obama hopes oil spill boosts support for climate bill: "President Obama tried Wednesday to channel public outrage about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill into support for a climate-change bill, seeking to redefine an issue that threatens to tarnish his presidency....Obama made one of his strongest pitches for comprehensive climate legislation, arguing that the case for breaking the nation's addiction to fossil fuels has been made clearer by the environmental catastrophe in the gulf....

     "'We share the view that this presents an unprecedented opportunity to take bold action to achieve this goal.' [said Daniel Weiss and Podestra...

     "The leading supporters of climate-change legislation on Capitol Hill cheered Obama's remarks as a clear step up from his rhetoric in recent months, when he often left unclear whether he was going to push for energy reform this year. 'This is just what we needed...,' Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the co-sponsor of the main Senate bill, wrote....

     [Rebuttal:] "Instead of devoting every possible resource to getting the gulf cleaned up, the Obama administration is once again using a crisis to push its job-killing agenda,' said Rep. Tom Price (Ga."). See The Emerging New World Order

Reid calls for sweeping energy bill: "Reid demanded 'swift' action from Democrats 'to address both the existing situation and to reduce the risks of such a catastrophe happening again.'... [That's easy: allow companies to drill on Alaska's flat barren land and other safe areas, thus avoiding the mile-deep places]

     "Committee leaders Max Baucus, Jeff Bingaman, Barbara Boxer, Chris Dodd, Patrick Leahy, Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln and John Rockefeller all received the majority leader's letter and have been asked to contribute their ideas to developing a blueprint for a comprehensive bill. A democratic aide close to the situation said Thursday's letter 'is largely in response to the situation in the gulf' and that Reid will meet with the chairmen next week to discuss a way forward."

Obama vows to fight for passage of climate-change bill in Senate: "The Gulf of Mexico oil spill should inspire the U.S. to cut its reliance on fossil fuels, President Obama said Wednesday.... The House has already passed a bill designed to do that, and a similar plan is pending before the Senate..."

President Obama: BP could face criminal charges over Gulf oil spill: "In a small but telling sign that things may be turning ominous for BP, the administration said it no longer wants its officials to share a podium with BP at the daily press briefing in Louisiana....The hurricane season begins Tuesday, adding another wild card, and tides are forecast to bring the oil slick onto tourist beaches in Mississippi and Alabama later this week."

Oil leak may last months: "Larry Crowder, a professor of marine biology at Duke University, said if the spill continues for a couple more months, oil almost certainly would move into the Loop Current that flows clockwise around the Gulf. The oil then would reach the Florida Keys within a week to 10 days and move on to North Carolina a couple of weeks later. 'If you have enough oil, it can go a big distance,' and some 100 million gallons could be spilled by August....      

      "Drilling experts said they feared the now-abandoned 'top kill' might have done further damage both to the well and the blowout preventer , a possible complication for the next plan.

      "Some drilling experts said 'top kill' failed because the force of the oil and gas pushing up from the reservoir 13,000 feet below the seafloor was so great that it had pushed most of the drilling mud out through the blowout preventer and into the sea. Tadeusz Patzek, chairman of petroleum and geosystems engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, said it was the 'equivalent of six or seven fire hoses blasting oil and gas up, while two fire hoses were used to blast the drilling mud down. They never stood much of a chance.'...

      "Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said BP 'made enormous mistakes and probably cut corners.' Vitter... also said the federal government has failed in its response to the crisis, 'particularly with the effort to protect our coast and our marsh.'"

Scientists Warn Of Unseen Deepwater Oil Disaster: [Also a video] "Researchers have said they have found at least two massive underwater plumes of what appears to be oil, each hundreds of feet deep and stretching for miles. Yet the chief executive of BP PLC — which has for weeks downplayed everything from the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf to the environmental impact — said there is 'no evidence' that huge amounts of oil are suspended undersea....

      "At least 20 million gallons of oil and possibly 43 million gallons have spilled since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded.... That has far eclipsed the 11 million gallons released during the Exxon Valdez spill....

      "Many of those [fish, etc.] species are now in their annual spawning seasons. Eggs exposed to oil would quickly perish. Those that survived to hatch could starve if the plankton at the base of the food chain suffer. Larger fish are more resilient, but not immune to the toxic effects of oil.

       "...oil in the plumes had dissolved into the water, possibly a result of chemical dispersants used to break up the spill. That makes it more dangerous to fish larvae and creatures that are filter feeders....The number of microbes that grow in response to the more concentrated BP spill could tip that system out of balance.... Too many microbes in the sea could suck oxygen from the water, creating an uninhabitable hypoxic area, or 'dead zone.'" See Signs of the times

 

INTERESTING VIEWPOINTS: (1) Mark R., a consulting professional engineer who has 30 years experience, mostly in drilling, including deepwater drilling projects, wrote the following in a circulating email (I can't evaluate the accuracy of these statements, but America will surely suffer a painful, destructive rise in energy costs):

      "Corexit will not 'kill the Gulf of Mexico'. Corexit has been around at least 20-30 years, maybe longer, and is used precisely because it is safe. It is essentially a soap. The 'orange goo' pictures are not crude, but rather, an emulsion caused by the dispersant (soap) and the oil…. Chemically, it is ‘washing the crude’...While messy... it will biodegrade and eventually disappear....
       "...to use this to cripple or destroy the deepwater industry in the US Gulf of Mexico is stunningly short-sighted and will ultimately result in higher oil (and natural gas) prices, with the liquid oil increasingly coming from nations that are not particularly friendly to the US. The deepwater drilling moratorium just announced by the White House is expected to reduce US oil production by about a MILLION barrels/day within a year or two.... Other parts of the Gulf of Mexico will still be drilling, including operations from Mexico, Cuba, France, and even China—none of which have our level of expertise, safety, or environmental concern. If reducing reliance on foreign oil is important enough to spend billions (that we don’t have) on subsidies to green energy, we should at least develop our own oil and gas....
      "I seriously doubt any suggestion of sabotage.... The only ones that ultimately could benefit, IMO, would be the Russians (who export enormous amounts of oil and gas, largely to Europe), and the elite of the environmental lobbying groups, (who will undoubtedly not waste a crisis and will reap a huge fundraising windfall along with pushing legislation that will make oil and gas drilling more expensive if allowed at all.)

(2) Who is Responsible for the ExxonValdez disaster?

 

 

Government Scientists Are Consulting But Unable to Stop BP Oil Spill: "In what is measuring up to be the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history, the government is nearly helpless to stop the oil flowing from the Deepwater Horizon well that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20....The government estimates that 12,000-19,000 barrels of oil are being released daily from 5,000 feet below the sea. Estimates are at about 18 million to 40 million gallons have been dumped into the Gulf since the explosion....

     "Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and other lawmakers and state officials have complained that not enough booms have been put up to shield Louisiana's shores, where 150 miles of coastline are already affected. He said he is very dissatisfied with the administration's response. 'The state and locals came up with a plan on emergency dredging barrier islands well over two weeks ago. For over two weeks, the corps and other federal agencies dragged their feet. Then, they approved moving forward with 2 percent of that plan.'"

 

Fear over Gulf oil spill: What happens if they can't stop it? "With a quick solution ominously uncertain, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is on track to become an unprecedented economic and environmental disaster with millions of gallons of oil destroying an ecosystem as well as a way of life....  BP's oil will cling to a sponge-like coast, entering the pores of mangrove forests and sea-grass beds and the breeding grounds for crabs, shrimp and oysters. Already some of the richest fishing grounds of the gulf are off-limits, idling thousands of commercial fishermen....

      "A growing slick could cut into a commercial fishing industry that produced about 1.27 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2008 with a dockside value of more than $659 million....

      "Damage to the wetlands could cost society billions of dollars in lost natural filtration of water and protection of property from storm surges. The coastal areas also are important habitat for birds, shrimp and many other forms of life....The gulf’s coastal sea-grass beds and mangroves are full of burrowing animals that make millions of holes. Oil works its way out of the holes eventually and then storms flush it back into the water, creating what amounts to a new spill.

      "Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., an opponent of offshore drilling, said it would be his 'worst nightmare' if the oil flowed for nearly three months more until the relief well was complete. 'It’s going to cover up the Gulf Coast and the wind is eventually going to keep it going south and it’s going to get into the Loop Current, and the Loop Current comes south and comes through the Florida Keys, where 85 percent of the live coral reefs in the country are,' Nelson said....

      "Another concern is the possibility that the spill will get much worse. If the wellhead gave way entirely, the amount of oil would increase greatly, said Larry McKinney, the executive director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies." 

Top Kill Fails: "...on-scene engineers have admitted that the Top Kill measure designed to stop the leak of oil has failed.... 'It's like an arm-wrestling match of two equally strong forces,' BP managing director Robert Dudley told reporters—except that the surging oil remains the dominant force.... [Man's finite strength can't compete with the amazing forces of God's creation!]

     "The next step, say Coast Guard and BP officials, is to take another shot at a containment dome.... There are risks involved.... For one, the new, dense base could further damage the well head and...risk to increase the flow 10 to 15 percent."

 

Gov. Jindal Asks for Permission to Build Barrier Islands [Now, four days later, permission is granted]: "...oil has seeped as far as 10 miles into some of the state's fragile marshlands, areas teeming with wildlife....They're fighting an enemy that grows every day, gushing far more oil than anyone can mop up."

Carville Slams Obama Over Oil Spill: "...it's unbelievable.... Carville says President Obama 'could have done' several things such as deploying people to the coast. 'They're [The people are] begging for something down here and he just looks like he's not involved in this." See Shamelessness

President in rift with reporters? "...the official pointed out how the White House provided communications and food to the Washington press corps but segregated the local media to an auxiliary room with nothing but a lone TV monitor and a pitcher of water. '"It was a disgrace,' confided the West Point official, who also admitted he was embarrassed by the episode....'If you are not White House press, they just don't care,' said a second West Point official.

    "The West Point bumbles came on the heels of Obama's visit to New York May 13 when press credentials were confirmed only hours before the president's arrival, leaving many to pass on media coverage.....Last Friday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs... was asked whether the administration, in lieu of British Petroleum's failures in the Gulf of Mexico, 'just stands there as a spectator and hopes for the best?'" See Media Censorship

Obama’s incompetence: "...when Obama chose his alliance with the Homosexual Lobby over containing this environmental [oil] disaster, I was speechless. You see, Dr. Jonathan Katz was hired as part of think tank to resolve the oil spill crisis, but was fired for an article written against homosexuality over a decade ago. Now, I understand that it’s Obama’s decision on who is hired for this job. But....Dr. Katz is obviously competent, being a professor of astrophysics. He was hired as a consultant to resolve a crisis, not hold public office. And it’s a crisis with the potential to cost the surrounding gulf industries billions upon billions of dollars, not to mention the devastation it will cause to sea life.

      "So why was this highly qualified individual fired? Because of a non-related article advocating his beliefs on the immorality and dangers of homosexuality. ....it’s clear the Homosexual Lobby ranks higher on the list than the livelihood of the millions who depend on Gulf of Mexico." See Moral Corruption

How the White House destroyed the Gulf: "Even preventing the oil from reaching shore has been a matter of talk and no action.... Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal asked the government to have the Corps of Engineers push sand into the interstices between the barrier islands as a temporary barrier to oil. It would have been relatively inexpensive and would have prevented the oil from reaching the Louisiana coastline. It was ignored. Now the oil is on the coastline. Birds, plants, frogs, fish and other creatures are dying. Fisheries will be ruined for at least two to three years after the oil is finally stopped."


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